Auburn's offense was the driving force behind its 31-15 victory over South Alabama. Both wide receivers and running backs made plays that were the highlight of the afternoon.
Cam Coleman jumping over the Jaguars defender to catch a stunning 32-yard touchdown in Auburn's opening possession of the game gave the Tigers the early edge. Jeremiah Cobb recorded another touchdown at the end of the first half, further bolstering Auburn's lead.
Freeze was happy with the performance his offense put up on Saturday.
"I think I'm really pleased," he said. "Offensively, we had eight possessions. That was it. I was probably a bit conservative up two scores in trying to use some clock. But I thought there were a lot of good things that happened offensively, particularly early on in the game.
"I thought all the different looks you got from that crew, they handled it well — particularly in the running game. The first few drives, I thought the pocket was clean, too, for him to be able to go through his progressions and throw good balls. I thought the o-line played solid," he added.
Jackson Arnold jumped in, saying he was equally proud of the running game.
"I thought today, they played their butts off again," the quarterback said. "Fantastic in the running game, fantastic in the passing game. They were heating us up a good amount, and they picked up blitzes phenomenally. Says we got sacked one time. They did a phenomenal job today. I'm proud of them."
That said, QB Arnold had completed only 13 of his 24 passes. That is a completion percentage of 54.2%, a desperate score that Freeze's squad will need to work on urgently heading into their SEC slate.
Avoiding mistakes like Preston Howard dropping s sure-fire touchdown catch in the second quarter should be a top goal.
"We've got things you look at and try to improve," Freeze said. "Yeah, I think we've got to just continue to work on protection, route understanding, and Jackson making sure what the coverage is when certain routes are called. We'll continue to work on that next week."
All these little improvements, if executed well, would be what might give Auburn a shot at putting up tough competition against Oklahoma next week.